Antique Golf Clubs from Scotland: Clubmakers

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Clubmakers

David S Hunter
Baltusrol/Orange
Fair play to Baltusrol that they produced an eBook of sorts on their ‘ignored’ professional, though George Low has been well covered on this site. It is, though, ironic that by so doing they completely bypass without even a mention, his predecessor who also left a significant mark on American golf.

David Smith Hunter was the son of Charles Hunter and, like two of his brothers, sought to make his way in golf in the United States. He emigrated at the end of the 1890s and the first record I find of him is playing in the 1898 US Open at Myopia with the affiliation of Hempstead though I do not yet know to which club this refers.

Soon after he moved to become professional at the Oakland Club in Queens, a classic course but now under the Long Island Expressway. He wrote an instructional piece for Golf magazine which was published during his time at Oakland in 1899. The New York Times of 5 September 1899 describes him as recently becoming professional at Baltusrol and playing with an amateur against two of the best amateurs at the club. There was speculation about the US Open in Baltimore, the following week, where he would play with the affiliation of Baltusrol. He also played in the next two US Opens, at Chicago and Myopia, from Baltusrol. Indeed, at Myopia in 1901, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle fancied him as one of the favourites after a round of 76 in practice, but, when it came to the first round, ‘David Hunter fell down badly doing 92’.

Also in 1901, playing from Baltusrol, he was second behind George Low, who was still at Dyker Meadow, in the Palm Beach Open

The following year, 1902, he played in the US Open from ‘Flushing’ which I imagine may be the also long-gone Pomonok Country Club.

By the start of the 1903 season he was head pro at the Essex County Club in Orange, NJ. He continued to play tournaments regularly throughout the first decade of the 20th century, for the 2nd cup at Apawamis GC, Rye, NY, in 1903; finishing second in the Professional Championship at Lakewood in 1904; 4th in Metropolitan Open in 1906; fifth behind Alec “Nipper” Campbell in Eastern Professional Championship at Brookline in 1907 and, famously, being the first to break 70 in a round at the US Open. He achieved this in 1909 at Englewood, breaking the course record with a 68 in the morning but following it up with an 84 in the afternoon, leaving him in 15th for the third round. He played less tournament golf in the second decade, generally just the Metropolitan Open and making a trip back to Baltusrol for the US Open in 1915 where he missed the cut after two rounds.

The time at Essex County seems to have been a happy one and he laid out courses at Ridgeway Country Club, NJ, in 1910 and the first Mountain Ridge course in 1913. During his time here, he published Golf Simplified - Cause and Effect in 1923. He was also treasurer of the Eastern PGA during his time in Orange.

Finishing at Essex County in 1928 or 1929, he went back to Scotland but returned to take up the post of head professional at Plandome in Nassau County, Long Island, 1930.

He retired to Florida about 1950 and died there, in West Palm Beach, in January 1958.

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